Slice of Pink

Fabulous Four

Our first annual fabulous five reunion took place in San Luis Obispo last weekend. If you remember, I am set on meeting up with my law school ladies at least once a year to catch up, drink wine, and be generally fabulous.

Now, first of all, only four of the fabulous five were available, which in my opinion means that this was just the pre-reunion and that another reunion still must take place in 2011 with all five members present. We were just practicin' our wine drinking for our fifth member's return to California.

Second of all, and this is super exciting, we are all lawyers! Last time we were all together we were just miserable bar-takers, boo-hooing over the California Bar Exam. Don't we look all lawyerly? And un-miserable?

Third of all, girlfriends are the best! Call yours and plan a fun getaway pronto. It's absolutely required as far as I am concerned.

{The photo was swiped from Mary's Facebook page, without permission, and taken by Ken.}

Happy 29, Again

Growing up, there was a magnet on my grandparents' fridge that read something like this: "in a world full of fad food diets, you're my jelly doughnut!"

My Grampa loved raspberry-filled jelly doughnuts. Loved them so much, in fact, that when the Los Angeles Times did a write-up about his 1991 memorial service, the reporter focused on two things: 1) the fact that on every birthday he turned 29 and 2) how much he loved those jelly doughnuts (one student recounted how "he would giggle as he licked raspberry filling from the corners of his lips.")

My family has designated March 9, Grampa's birthday, as Jelly Doughnut Day. You don't have to have known Grampa to celebrate being young at heart and to honor a love-of-life legacy. So go have a jelly doughnut.

Dressed in Scarves

Y'all have to go check out the brand new Etsy shop that my fabulous friend Mary just opened. She makes beautiful earrings and is extremely talented (you may remember that Mary brought me to a jewelry making course a few months ago).

Just look at these pretty pieces:

Click over quick because these are one-of-a-kind pieces and they are going to sell out fast. Seriously, people, I'm about to buy the pink and pewter pair any minute.

Also: you should know, Mary is a lawyer and you usually have to pay lawyers like $300 per hour for their time. At $20 a pair, you are getting an AMAZING bargain.

Remix Challenge

Yesterday, Mary introduced us to Kendie Everyday, a fabulous fashion blog.

If you were inspired by Mary's year of not shopping, you might also love Kendie's Remix Challenge, in which she encourages you to select 30 items from your closet and remix those 30 items--and only those 30 items--for 30 days. Check it out!

The remix challenge has already kicked off, but there's no reason you couldn't start today.

Happy 29, Again

Growing up, there was a magnet on my grandparents' fridge that read something like this: "in a world full of fad food diets, you're my jelly doughnut!"

My Grampa loved raspberry-filled jelly doughnuts. Loved them so much, in fact, that when the Los Angeles Times did a write-up about his 1991 memorial service, the reporter focused on two things: 1) the fact that on every birthday he turned 29 and 2) how much he loved those jelly doughnuts (one student recounted how "he would giggle as he licked raspberry filling from the corners of his lips.")

My family has designated March 9, Grampa's birthday, as Jelly Doughnut Day. You don't have to have known Grampa to celebrate being young at heart and to honor a love-of-life legacy. Go have a jelly doughnut.

More on Proust

I'm still working on my answers to the Proust Questionnaire, and encourage you to answer, too, if you haven't already done so. In the meantime, I wanted to let you know about a few more fun links.

+ Martha Stewart answered the questionnaire this month. She claims to deplore "any type of indecision" (which is the trait I most deplore in myself), but then goes on to be rather indecisive throughout (although, perhaps if I didn't labor over all the questions and simply answered indecisively, I would already have mine completed).

+ Kaleigh and Ally completed it, clearly not an indecisive duo.

+ Vanity Fair is now letting you take a modified Proust Questionnaire to see which of the 101 luminaries you most resemble and even letting you compare your answers with friends on Facebook.

I promise to finish mine this weekend and hope you will, too!

Proust Questionnaire: The Meme Original

I am beyond excited about this forthcoming book, Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire: 101 Luminaries Ponder Love, Death, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life.

Since July 1993, the back page of Vanity Fair has been devoted to the Proust Questionnaire, in which a noteworthy person answers a series of personal questions. The questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust (1871–1922), the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.

Check it out! It's the original meme! And it's not a bunch of silly questions about your favorite color or your dog's middle name. This is serious business. These are questions that will reveal your true nature, for goodness sake, which is why I think we should all get busy answering the questions right away. I know, I know. Another meme, right? But this one is the real deal, used long before teenagers started making up Facebook memes on the Internetz. And, since it will reveal your true nature, allegedly, it may save you many years and many thousands of dollars in therapy (or, alternatively, could compel you to seek therapy, I guess).

For inspiration, you can find the interviews conducted between 2005 and 2009 on VF's website. Among my favorites are Jasper Johns, Julie Andrews, and (ha!) Marcel Proust's own answers to the questionnaire.

If you do answer these questions, please let me know! I'd love to put together a post with links to all of our questionnaire answers.

The Proust Questionnaire is after the jump, if you dare!

A Message to My Little Sister

Dear April,

Love, your sister

Z to the Zizzle

I am feeling very strongly that we all need to make a better effort of regularly using these words in common parlance: 

1. fizzy 

2. dazzle 

3. swizzle 

4. pizzazz

5. mezzanine

Doesn't the double Z just sound so pleasing? 

I'm sure you can fit one of these great double Z words into a post today. Just another way to make the world a better place in which to live. 

A Great Eight

A confession: I like to sleep.

Not only do I like to sleep, I do sleep. I usually get somewhere around eight hours a night; often more on the weekends. I've never pulled an all-nighter--no term paper has ever come between me and at least six hours of sleep.

I am going to make a terrible lawyer.

Why is it that not sleeping is so cool? At least in my recent experience--with high schoolers and law students--getting eight hours of sleep is rare and indulgent. It is actually trendy to drag your ass into class, large coffee in hand, after only three or four hours of sleep. And people let you know that they only got three hours of sleep last night; nobody ever announces that they got a fabulous eight hours.

I am here to tell you that I got a fabulous eight hours. And you should, too.

Check out the recent NPR article, In Today's World, the Well-Rested Lose Respect, with sleep researcher Dr. Eve Van Cauter. This article illustrates, all scientifical-like, what I have known all along: not sleeping is not cool.

Van Cauter believes we are in a period now very similar to where we were with smoking 20 years ago. She envisions a time 20 years from now, when knowledge, research and even litigation (perhaps lawsuits against sleep-deprived drivers who cause accidents) will combine to change public perception so that lack of sleep is finally seen as dangerous, not something to be proud of.

Go have a nap and don't feel the least bit guilty about it. In fact, order yourself a Holly Golightly Sleep Mask, turn off the telephone, and enjoy some beauty rest.

Sleep, darlings, is always in style. Spread the word.